The economy ministers of France and Germany said the US had agreed to address European concerns over the Inflation Reduction Act, the $370bn support programme for US clean tech, but acknowledged that their talks with US officials had not yielded any concrete proposals.
Bruno Le Maire, France’s economy minister, said he and his German counterpart Robert Habeck had achieved “substantive progress” in their talks in Washington and won “assurances” that the US would seek to assuage European concerns.
But few specifics emerged from the meetings, apart from an agreement on full transparency over the level of subsidies on offer under the IRA so that Europe can match them if necessary.